Capriati holds her nerve and her serve

Yesterday, after Jennifer Capriati out-smoked Serena Williams on Centre Court, tennis offered up dramatic possibilities as the championship began to edge towards theatre. Hollywood, feel-good, saccharine perhaps, but Capriati's three-set win over one of the credible challengers for the title has given a bigger theme to this year's Wimbledon Soap.

The well-raked ashes of Capriati's prodigious start as a 14-year-old, her decline at 16 and rise again is beginning to shape the competition more than anything else, even the despairing collapse of an apparently ill Williams for the first five games of the third set, one which gave Capriati a 5-0 lead and handed her the match.

As much as the Americans, who are willing the 25-year-old Capriati on to take the title and set up a US Open which would encapsulate one of the most sensational sports stories of the year, so too did the Centre Court crowd rise to the tenacity of the older player.

It is a prickly atmosphere to which both Williams sisters have grown accustomed, as again the ferocity of Serena's game and the perceived lack of humility percolated through the stadium. While the sympathy lay with Capriati throughout almost two-and-a-half hours tennis, there was a creeping concern for the 19-year-old as she began to fracture in front of the packed court for those opening five games of the deciding set.

Williams' fear was written large on her face and urgent and they swiftly transferred to her game. At 4-0 down she left the court for five minutes, only to return to face Capriati's serve for 5-0. It later emerged that Williams had been suffering from a form of gastroenteritis and was physically sick during that break.

"For four days I've been struggling. That's when I got sick. I haven't been able to really eat since. I was just . . . ugh, going on emotion," said Williams before establishing that she'd had pasta and a banana yesterday.

"I went to the doctor twice," she added. "It was gas, I don't know gastromunical virus, viral infection? I think I've had it a while and it's coming to it's apex now.

"I did think of pulling out of the tournament. I went to the WTA before the Maleeva match and said I don't know if I can do it. I just had no energy. I've lost four pounds in weight."

Williams also said after beating Magdalena Maleeva in her last match in a whirlwind 49 minutes that the Serena who lost to Capriati a few weeks ago in the French Open was an imposter, implying the real Serena would finally be on court.

Capriati, who has now won the last four matches they have played, was more than a little sceptical when asked whether she noticed any appreciable loss in power from Williams.

"No, not at all. I thought she said she was an imposter in France and this is the real her coming out." It was then put to Capriati that the excuse was an effort to diminish her win through claiming illness, given that in Miami there was a knee problem, in Paris an imposter played and yesterday nausea.

"It doesn't matter, I think I know the truth inside. I think most people do. It's only important for me to know. I mean, I could turn around and say I was dealing with my own thing out there with my leg."

It was a wild match lacking any obvious pattern. In the first set there were six breaks of serve, Williams winning it 7-6 on a tiebreak. The second set had five service breaks with Capriati coming through having been just two points away from losing the match at 30-30 and 6-5 down on Williams' serve. She also departed after the fifth game for five minutes medical treatment for a "glute strain", i.e., the buttocks.

Both players were going for and missing big winners, Williams falling below Capriati with 38 unforced errors and six double faults.

That's a ton of mistakes. Williams explained this extravagant tactic as trying to finish the match and get off court quickly.

"I knew when I had to come out here I just had to go for it because my energy level without food for four days is not going to be the best," she said.

Justine Henin's anxiety to get Conchita Martinez done and dusted came close to humiliating the 1994 champion. Ten years in age difference, Henin impressively whizzed through for her first Wimbledon quarter-final 6-1, 6-0 to meet the Australian and French Open champion.

Her compatriot Kim Clijsters fared less well off against an opponent in the ascendent. Lindsay Davenport, who came into the tournament off injury and slightly under done, won the first set 6-1 before the unyielding Clijsters broke service in the first game of the second set. But Davenport, improving by the round, replied with little charity winning the second set 6-2.

Venus Williams was equally tight with games. After a lazy opening 7-5 set, she brushed Nathalie Tauzait aside 6-1. Afterwards Tauzait confirmed that this would be her last Wimbledon.